


Siblings

by YoshiStack



Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, One Shot Collection, They aren't really the focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YoshiStack/pseuds/YoshiStack
Summary: Ulrich didn't have siblings, and he suspected he probably never would. But who said siblings had to be related by blood?(The one shot collection about the characters that needed to interact more: Ulrich and Aelita)Chapters 1-6 written between June 2017 to December 2019.
Relationships: Aelita Schaeffer & Ulrich Stern, Implied Jeremie Belpois/Aelita Schaeffer, Implied Yumi Ishiyama/Ulrich Stern
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of a small amount of series that I've needed to bring over from ff.net. I meant to do this sooner, but I was focusing on other projects. I still am really, I just have... certain issues right now making it a little harder. 
> 
> It's the only one from ff.net with multiple chapters, so I'll update it over time to bring all the chapters over.
> 
> You can request more if you like. I won't promise I'll do them, but ideas are always appreciated.

Ulrich had always liked the idea of having a sibling. Someone he could pick on, take care of, be responsible for. One of his uncles was the father of three children, and though an age gap was present, they all three seemed generally close.

Maybe he wouldn't feel as lonely all the time.

When Ulrich was five he finally mustered up the courage to ask his parents about it.

"Why don't I have any brothers or sisters?" He'd asked during breakfast one morning. His parents, although far from talkative, suddenly grew quiet. His mother in particular looked visibly upset by the question.

"Because you don't," is what his father answered, his voice gruffer than usual.

"But wh-"

"I won't repeat myself!" His father boomed over him, making both Ulrich and his mother flinch. His dad let out a sigh and rubbed his temple. "Finish your breakfast. You have piano lessons at 9:30,"

And that had been the end of that.

Ulrich didn't think much of the idea of siblings much after that. Through his own eventual reasoning, the chances of it happening were slim to none anyway, so why bother thinking about it? By the time he'd enrolled at Kadic, he barely even remembered ever asking about it.

Then he met Aelita.

He admittedly, didn't think much of her first. He felt just as strongly as Yumi or Odd in the want to see her materialized, and considered her a friend, but little beyond that. It wasn't until she was back on Earth for good that their bond formed. He wasn't sure what it was about her, whether it was her genuinely innocent naivete or the lost, puppy dog like look she wore on her first few trips Earth, but something about her brought out his protective nature.

It was one of her first days at Kadic, during lunch that it really showed. She and Odd appeared in front of him with their trays in hand. She smiled upon seeing him, as if she hadn't just spent the last several hours in classrooms with him.

"Hey. Enjoying your first real day of classes?" He asked.

"Yes, very much," she affirmed. A sheepish expression overcame her face. "It's still all a bit overwhelming though. I'm not sure how you all do it everyday,"

"Heh, no one said we were good at it," Odd laughed. "Anyway, enjoy the experiences while you can, Princess, cause the routine gets old pretty fast,"

"Then I'll be sure to take in as much as I can," she smiled.

"Hey, where's Jeremy?" Ulrich then asked. The blond genius was nowhere in sight, but he could definitely remember seeing him in class.

Odd gave a strange wave. "Oh, you know Einstein. Always raring to work whenever he can on Lyoko stuff,"

"He's trying to make some headway on my antivirus," Aelita elaborated. "Although I do hope he doesn't work himself as bad as he did with my materialization. The amount if times he was up pas-"

"Well, if it isn't Kadic's newest brainiac," A shrill voice cut in. Aelita was startled, to the point that she almost dropped her fork. One look at who it was and Ulrich groaned.

"Go away, Sissi," he said tiredly.

She gave him a smirk. "I hardly think it's a crime to want to get to know Kadic's newest student. Why, our dorms are next to each other but we've hardly spoken at all. Why is that exactly?" She gave Aelita an uncomfortably close stare.

Aelita squirmed. "Well, uh..."

"Because she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to," Odd said with a slight scowl.

"You don't have to answer for her, she can talk just like the rest of us," Sissi shot back. She returned her focus on Aelita as if Odd had never spoken in the first place. Her sickly sweet smile returned as well. "At least, I assume so. You didn't say much in Mrs. Hertz's class today. Say, what's your story anyway?"

"M-my what?"

Ulrich clenched the edge of the table tightly, his knuckles turning a hot white. "Back off, Sissi," he warned, straining to keep himself from growling at her. It was one thing to mess with him, Jeremy, or Odd, it was another matter entirely to mess with her. If Sissi heard, she gave no indication of it.

"Your story. Y'know, what you did before Kadic, your family, friends, your life? Everyone wants to know, you're quite the mystery," Sissi stopped for a moment and tilted her head. "And what's with the pink hair? That shade is so last spring."

"W-well-"

"What part of 'go away' do you not understand?" Odd said, glaring.

"Did you dye it? Figures you're just like your cousin, bad taste and all," Sissi sighed and shook her head. "I guess it's not entirely your fault. I'd probably just as bad off if I were related to Della-"

That was the last straw. He slammed a fist onto the table, scattering their utensils and creating a loud boom. The usual buzz of noise suddenly grew still as everyone began to stare at him. He didn't care though; they hardly mattered. His blood was boiling.

He kept his gaze low with a dark expression. "I'm not going to ask you again: buzz off, and leave us— _Aelita_ —alone," he all but snarled. "Or else,"

"Uh– oh! I think I hear my father calling me. Goodbye, Ulrich!" Sissi stammered before running off, her lunch long forgotten. Ulrich let his fist relax only after Sissi had left the cafeteria.

Odd stared for a moment in shock, then shook his head. "Hey, mind your own business! Nothing to see here! Go back to your food!" He shouted to the others still staring. The usual noises returned in full force after a few moments of them scrambling to tear their gaze from them.

Aelita, face red, looked down at her lap. "I, um... thank you, Ulrich," she stammered.

He nodded. "No problem. And be sure to tell me if she starts up again. She won't be for long if she does," he told her.

"Honestly, after that performance I'm not sure Sissi will come near you or Aelita ever again!" Odd said a grin. Ulrich allowed himself to lean back again.

"If only," he smirked. They both laughed, only stopping when he noticed Aelita looking a bit flustered. "You alright there, Aelita?"

"I... is it normal for my face to feel this warm?" She asked, her tone implying she knew how silly it sounded. Ulrich and Odd shared a look before cracking grins. Not out of enjoyment of her confusion, but out of Aelita being... well, Aelita.

"I dunno if I'd call it 'normal' there, Princess. But it does happen from time to time," Odd explained.

"You can ask Einstein about it later, but you're good," Ulrich assured her.

Yumi approached moments later with a confused look. "Did I miss something? Because I just saw Sissi running off to the dorms and she almost had a panic attack just looking at me," she asked as she sat down.

Ulrich, Odd, and even Aelita to an extent, all burst out into laughter again. And seeing Aelita getting progressively more comfortable with the conversation, he couldn't help but smile.

Ulrich was proud to see that very few dared to mess with Aelita after that. And their strange sort of relationship only grew after that.

It wasn't growth in the most obvious ways, like how her relationship with Jeremy was, but it was there. Like how she started going to him more for answers for certain questions she had, usually pertaining with how to deal with certain other students in class, or about other skills that Jeremy wasn't good enough at to answer.

Or how some mornings she'd flock to his and Odd's dorm room, if only because she knew he wouldn't ask about the dark marks forming under her eyes. Or that when she did bring up the reasons, he would listen without interrupting once.

Or how she started to look over his work and made corrections, all while assuring him that, 'no, you're not an idiot, anyone could've made that mistake. This is how you really do it,.'

Ulrich didn't have siblings, and he suspected he probably never would.

But who said siblings had to be related by blood?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written when I decided to turn this into a series of oneshots. Fun memories.

"And that's all there is to it," Aelita said, putting her pen down. She looked down at him with a proud sort of look, though whether or not it was intended for him, he wasn't entirely sure. He was too stunned to comprehend.

"How do you  _ do _ that?" He asked suddenly.

She raised a brow. "Really? I just showed you,"

"No, not that." He shook his head. "I mean, how do you remember it so easily?" He clarified, motioning to the paper that was filled with her markings. They were all steps to some complicated math equation that Ulrich was certain he would never use outside of physics class, and she remembered them all without even a glance at her notes.

And that wasn't the only time that ever happened. Outside of helping him study, he rarely ever saw Aelita studying anything beyond maybe Italian or maybe history. And she still somehow managed a 95 grade point average.

She gave a sad smirk. "Spending 10 years of your life inside a quantum computer does have its benefits,"

He snorted. "Gee, I'll have to try it some time." The smirk he had vanished completely when he saw the vacant look in her eyes. Her eyes, while not glazed over, were unfocused and staring at something beyond the desk in front of them. Ulrich decided to let the moment pass in silence, interrupted only by his pen clicking.

She jumped at one click about a minute later. She look around for a moment, looked at Ulrich, then away again with a sheepish expression.

"Sorry," she muttered, fiddling a bit with some loose strands of hair. He let out a hum of acknowledgment. His fingers rapped loudly and rhythmically against the desk as a thought came to him.

"Do you ever wonder about it sometimes?" He asked suddenly.

"Wonder about what?" she asked quietly.

"About what your life would be like without the supercomputer?"

She was silent at that. She closed her eyes. "I..." she sighed. "Yeah, I really do. Does that sound bad?"

"No, it just means I don't have to call you out for lying," Ulrich commented, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

Aelita looked up towards the window with her brow furrowed. "How can I not think about it? It's played such a big part in my life and impacted it so much," she looked back down again, eyeing a picture that Ulrich had of the five of them on the desk. "Impacted all of our lives so much."

Kiwi popped his head out at that moment. One look toward Aelita and Kiwi was rushing to her, just waiting to be pet. She gave the mutt a small smile as she rubbed him behind his ears. He let out a content moan and closed his eyes, satisfied with the attention given to him.

Ulrich stared at the photo. It was a picture taken during his birthday. Odd had wanted a party, much to Ulrich's chagrin. It ended up not being so bad, just the five of them eating more sweets than they probably should've and playing some board games they had lying around. Ulrich frowned at the photo, regardless of the happy memories.

"What do you think your life would've been like without Lyoko?" Aelita then asked, still focusing on petting Kiwi.

"Life without it?" Ulrich repeated. "Well, more boring I guess. Wouldn't have to sneak around after hours and try and get out of class every other day." He left it at that, but he knew there was so much more; too much to say it all.

He and Jeremy probably would've never been anything more than acquaintances, let alone friends.

Odd might not even have still been there, given his initial opinions on Kiwi and wanting him gone.

And then Yumi... He didn't even want to know what would've happened with her. Would they have become friends? Stayed as they'd been?

Been something more?

He almost choked at the last thought and felt his face turn red. He stared back down at his desk again, towards the photo. He felt his gaze go over to Aelita's face in the picture, a smile partially obscured by the card she had up from whatever game they'd been playing.

"What about you?" he asked, then turned to her face. "How would your life be?"

She went quiet, wearing a thoughtful expression, then stopped petting Kiwi and pushed him aside, much to the dog's dismay. "Different in more ways than I can count,"

She let out a wistful sigh and closed her eyes. But what surprised Ulrich most of all, was that when she opened them again, a smile returned to her lips as well. "But I think it all worked out for the best, given the circumstance."

"Huh?"

"My father built the supercomputer for a reason, Ulrich: to escape from whoever his 'enemies' were. Even if he hadn't built it, those men in black still would've found us, one way or another. Just like they did when they took my mother," she frowned at the memory. "And then who knows what my life would've been life: maybe it would've all worked out just fine, and I would've had a normal life. But maybe I would've lived a life of fear and in hiding. Or worse,"

Ulrich stared at her, his pen twirling in his hand, and a look of slight awe on his face. Here was a girl who'd been through so much in her life, and she still managed to find a positive in the outcome.

"You've given this a lot of thought," he noted after another beat of silence. He felt dumb saying that, of course she had, it encompassed a part of her life that she could never get back. "I'm not sure I could ever see it like that,"

Aelita shrugged. "I can't change any of it, no return to the past could ever change it, even if I wanted to." Much to Kiwi's dismay, it was this time that Aelita scooted him off her lap. "I don't see any reason to dwell on the lost possibilities at this point. Yes, I lost my family, and I've accepted that. But this entire ordeal has given me a second—potentially better—one."

"Second family?"

"Of course. Odd's a great, if a little annoying cousin, and you and Yumi are the best siblings I could ever ask for," Aelita said, another smile creeping on her face.

Ulrich's thoughts drifted to his own family only for a moment.

Aelita was right, this one they'd forged was definitely preferable.

"Hey, wait a sec. What about Jeremy? You didn't mention him," Ulrich pointed out. The squeak Aelita let out at that was both adorable, and extremely satisfying.

"I'll uh... let you know when we figure that out," Aelita stammered, her face turning a bright red. Ulrich cackled. "Don't you have more physics work to do?"

"Oh no you don't! You never let up on me and Yumi, it's only fair you get it back!" He grinned wickedly. "Besides, from what I hear, older brothers are supposed to give their siblings hell about everything."

"Ulrich Micheal Stern, you are terrible and I take back every nice thing I've said about you,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the positive feedback. These were written awhile ago, so glad to see some people still thinks it holds up.
> 
> I do see any new requests that come in and they'll written them down. It just... may be a minute before I get to them. Part of why I'm posting this now is because I can't work on my ongoing projects due to issues with my hand.
> 
> I do see them though!


	3. Chapter 3

PE was one of the few classes Ulrich felt he thrived in. Instead of being cooped up in a dreary classroom and being forced to try and memorize useless facts about science or history, he could stretch his legs, quite literally. Where he fell in academics, he rose in athletics.

He felt no small amount of satisfaction at being able to dominate his peers in the various activities Jim presented them.

At least, he did for most. As for the less athletically inclined...

" _ Belpois! Get that confangled machine out of my sight before I take from you! If I don't see you doing something physical in the next three seconds... well, I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it! _ "

...Ulrich was more than content to let them keep to themselves, for their own safety more than anything.

It was a bit of a 'free day' in phys ed today. Any athletic activity that they could do on the field was available. The whole class was scattered across to do whatever they felt would be fun.

As for Ulrich, his attention was immediately caught by the soccer balls scattered by one of the goals. He almost immediately went for one of them and began to bounce it and show off. He got it up to his shoulders before he felt someone's eyes on them. He let the ball fall back down before he turned to meet whoever it was.

He was surprised to find Aelita was the one staring at him. Or rather, she was staring at the ball.

Ulrich bent down to pick said ball up. "Oh. What's up?" He asked.

She shuffled on her feet awkwardly. "I'm... I guess I'm just not entirely certain of what to do?" She'd only been here for a few weeks, and while she was starting to become acquainted with people outside their group, she was still finding it hard to fit in. "I can go find Odd instead if you-"

"No, you're fine. I'm just surprised not to see you with Jeremy. You've been kinda sticking to him like glue," he smirked at her confused expression. "It's another figure of speech, Aelita."

"Oh," she breathed out. She was silently thankful she didn't have to wonder how glue came into her friendship with Jeremy. "Well, there's a lot I still need to learn about Earth, and Jeremy's a great teacher for a lot, but uh... I'm not sure he's the person I should be asking about these kinds of things." To demonstrate her point, she motioned to her left towards the track. Ulrich had to try not to laugh at the sight.

Jeremy was begrudgingly trudging across the track at an almost snail level pace, and the expression he had was absolutely priceless.

"Fair enough," Ulrich admitted, struggling to keep any laughter from getting out. He shook his head with a chuckle and looked down, his attention returning to the ball he was holding. "You know how to play?" He asked, motioning to the ball with his eyes.

She gave him a look that screamed 'Really?'

"Right, dumb question..." he mumbled. She was definitely beginning to pick up on the finer points of sass, whether she realized it or not, and Ulrich wasn't sure if he found it hilarious or terrifying. He shook his head. "Rephrase: do you want to know how to play?"

"Er, play what exactly?" She asked.

Ulrich blinked at her for a moment, having to remind himself who he was talking to. "Ok, well... god, how do you even explain that? How much do you even know about sports?"

"Only a little bit. There was so much to research to do about Earth life while I was still on Lyoko that I didn't give it as much time as I would've liked," she admitted, frowning slightly.

He ran a hand through his hair, nodding. "Ok, ok... so uh, god I guess you're gonna need the basics first. Ok, let's start with this." He set the ball on the ground. "This is a soccer ball, which we use to play soccer. The goal of the game-" he stopped for a split second to cringe at his accidental pun, "-is to get the ball into that goal over there," he explained, pointing to the goal not too far from them.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Aelita said, nodding as she absorbed the information.

Ulrich smirked at her naivete. "Right, it sounds easy, but there's a catch: you can't use your hands to do it. You have to use your feet to guide the ball to your opponent's side, and then kick it it."

"You can't use your hands at all?"

"Not unless you're the one protecting the goal anyway. Or if you need to throw the ball back in I guess, but that's different," he chuckled at her stunned face. "I had the same reaction when I started playing too. It's not as bad as it sounds. Here, you wanna try kicking it in the goal?" He walked a bit closer to the goal and set the ball down in front of it.

"Er... sure, I guess," Aelita answered hesitantly. Seeming very unsure, Aelita went behind the ball, staring down the goal with a confused look.

"Yeah, just try to kick it in," Ulrich encouraged from beside her. She gave a forceful nod, then reeled her leg back before kicking the ball as hard as she could...

...Which sent the ball flying towards one of the posts holding the goal. She let out a squeak as the ball bounced off of it and soared over her head, landing a few feet behind them. It bounced a few more times, then rolled back before coming to a complete stop. Aelita, lowering her hands that she's used to guard her face, gave a sheepish expression.

"That was pretty terrible, wasn't it?"

He laughed. "That was better than some first attempts I've seen. I remember one kid I once saw try and kick the ball and it ended up hitting the coach in the-" He glanced at Jeremy nearby and thought better of sharing that particular detail. "Uh... well, it hurt him a lot anyway," He trailed off and laughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the confused expression she was now giving him. "A-anyways, it wasn't bad for your first try, really,"

"You don't have to try and make me feel better about it, Ulrich,"

"No, really. Everyone starts somewhere, and there are worse places to start off than where you are," Ulrich encouraged with a gentle smile. He'd seen worse in his time. At least her issues seemed easily fixable. She smiles back at him, then went over and grabbed the ball, her silent way of saying she was willing to try again. "Alright, first of all, you gotta be careful of your foot when you're kicking it..."

And that was how Ulrich spent his free time in phys ed that day. He didn't spend it how he'd initially planned, running around with his classmates playing an intense match of soccer, but rather, doing the thing he hated most: teaching and educating. He'd laugh at it later, but he didn't regret it.

By the time class was ending, Aelita has successfully managed to get three goals in a row (And one time of accidentally hitting Jeremy in the fact with the ball, but that was good enough to count as something extra special in Ulrich's eyes!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is interesting looking back at these older chapters... at least when I'm not cringing a them because "ahh older work no!"
> 
> Ah, well, so long as someone likes it!


	4. Chapter 4

"Aelita?"

"Yes, Ulrich?"

"How long have we been here?"

"Approximately 45 minutes."

Ulrich let out a groan and fell back against his back onto the ice. Digital ice, that was, as he was currently stuck on Lyoko's Ice Sector on watch duty with Aelita. It had been requested by Jeremy, who'd said the superscan needed maintenance. Aelita could listen for pulsations the old fashioned way of course, but both of them said they'd feel much better about it if someone was with her should XANA rear his ugly mug—or Williams, which he wasn't really sure which was uglier at this point. And given the track record, it was likely to happen.

Ulrich had foolishly volunteered for the job, and he was beginning to regret every second of it.

" _ 'The superscan only needs some tuning' he said. 'It shouldn't take that long at all' he said _ ," Ulrich let out a quiet grumble, covering his face with his hands. "This is the last time I let you two convince me on these things." He knew it probably wouldn't be, but it made him feel better telling himself that.

Aelita, sitting in the lotus position beside him, cracked an eye open to look at him. Shaking her head with a laugh, she looked up towards the sky. "Jeremy, how's the maintenance going? I think Ulrich's about ready to die of boredom,"

"He's gonna have to endure it for a little bit longer," Jeremy at least had the decency to sound apologetic as he crackled from above. "I've gotta make sure that this runs as well as it can. We wouldn't want to get caught off guard simply because the superscan was a bit too slow,"

"And how long is that gonna take you?" Ulrich asked, already dreading the response.

"Uh... about another half hour at least. Sorry, Ulrich!" Jeremy went quiet at that, and Ulrich let out another groan.

"God, I never thought being on Lyoko could be so  _ boring! _ " He whined, sitting up again.

"Would you rather XANA try to throw me into the Digital Sea again?" Aelita asked dryly.

"Yes—I mean no, of course I don't want that!" He quickly added at her frown. It was a pain to have to stop from happening, and the last thing he wanted was for his friends to be in danger. "I just wish we had  _ something _ to do other than just sit around."

"Better than having to run for our lives."

"I know, I know, I just-"

"No, you're restless, I get it." She let out a sigh and adjusted into a more comfortable sitting position. "I forget that spending long amounts of time on Lyoko like this without any action isn't something you're used to."

He blinked at her. Oh, that was right. It felt so long ago now, but this used to be Aelita's daily life. Stuck on Lyoko all by herself for hours on end with only XANAs monsters to keep her busy when Jeremy was too busy to talk. He'd never really thought about it before, he'd almost entirely forgotten about it actually, but it must've been incredibly lonely for her.

"How'd you live like this everyday?" He couldn't help but ask, a look of awe on his face. Surely she had to have gotten sick of it.

She chuckled at his expression. "It's not as if I had much choice," she reminded him. She then put a hand to her chin in thought. "It wasn't as bad as it seems now. As far as I knew then, I was just a high functioning AI. I didn't know what I was missing out on; monitoring Lyoko was all I knew, and I was fine with it, especially knowing what Jeremy was working so hard on. Not to mentioned I could research about Earth in my free time, and lord knows I never ran out of search material when it came to that topic."

She shrugged. "And it's not as if it was all so lonely. I got to talk to Jeremy every day when we worked on my materialization, and you all popped in when you could to talk. Overall, it wasn't bad for what it was. I would never go back to it for a multitude of reasons, but it wasn't unbearable."

"Huh..." she always seemed to surprise him with her perspective on everything on everything that'd happened in her life. He'd have to ask her how she could stay so positive all the time one of these days. He was about 90% sure he'd be way more bitter than she was, had their roles been reversed.

"But enough about that!" she suddenly said, standing up and dusting the invisible dust off herself. She smiled down at him as she stretched her arms above her. "C'mon, you said you were bored, and now I've thought of something to do!"

"Wait, what?" he asked, already standing up. His legs felt a little fuzzy, was it even possible for your limbs to fall asleep while on Lyoko? Maybe it was all mental. "What are we gonna do? Fight each other?" It was a joke question, but he'd honestly be up for it at this point.

"No, though I would like to see how you fight with one of your sabers these days, if you don't mind. Might come in handy, you never know," she requested. He nodded. "What I had in mind was more of a race: you and me, no vehicles, to the nearest Way Tower."

A beat of silence passed between them. And then Ulrich burst out into a loud laughter that almost made him double over.

Aelita wasn't impressed. "What's so funny about that?" she asked, arm folded across her chest indignantly.

"I just... you-" he took a breath to collect himself, having to put a hand in front of his mouth to stop him from smiling. "It's just... Aelita, I've seen you run before. No offense, but you're not exactly an Olympian sprinter. And I just- Another chuckle escaped his mouth. "A race between me and you, without the vehicles? No way,"

"What, afraid you'll lose?" she asked, a smug smirk having come over her expression. Well, he couldn't turn down an invitation like that, now could he?

"Of course not," he returned her look with a confident grin of his own. He moved to stand near her for their makeshift starting line. "But why the sudden interest?"

"Well, you're bored and we may as well check all the sectors anyway, just in case." She explained simply with a wink. "So, are you ready?"

He took a starting position. "You betcha." He grinned, he'd give her a race alright. A one sided one perhaps.

Her smirk didn't fade as she didn't move, standing as normal beside him. "Alright then. On your mark, get ready... GO!"

"Super Spr- huh?!" There was a flash of pink beside him, blinding him for a moment. When he looked to his right, Aelita was no longer standing there. Rather, she was flying there, pink angel wings spread out behind her.

She flew ahead. "What? I never said it was a  _ foot _ race, did I?" She laughed as she looked ahead. "Keep up if you can, Ulrich!" she called back.

He was stunned for a moment. "Oh that is so not- argh! Super Sprint!" He took off in a streak of yellow to catch up with her.

She was SO on after a stunt like that!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting closer and closer to having all of the older stuff posted here. I appreciate the support in the meantime though!


	5. Chapter 5

He finds them in the rec room. He'd just wanted to see if anyone there wanted to play some foosball or something. The room is empty, he finds out, sans a pair sitting in front of the tv with controllers in hand. The game on screen is paused and not one he recognizes. He hears the conversation between them drop as the door opens, heads jumping back to look at him. He swallows and feels his face scrunch up for a split second.

Aelita is hanging out with William.

Again.

"Oh." William lets out. A moment of silence passes between the three, long and extremely uncomfortable. His initial idea seemed a lot less appealing now.

Ulrich took a step back. "I'll just go-"

"No, don't. I was..." William glanced back at the controller in his hands and sighed. He stood up and placed it on the tv stand, then shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I was just about to head out anyways."

"William..." Aelita started, breathy as she sighed.

He raised a hand and silenced her. "Don't." He said. They shared a look with one another, one that he wasn't privy to the meaning to. William gave a ghost of a smile and nodded at her. "See you around." He moved towards the door, stopping for a moment in front of Ulrich. "Ulrich." He said curtly.

"William." Ulrich said back. They stared at one another for a moment until Ulrich stepped out of the way of the door frame to let him out. The older boy stalked out without another word. Ulrich watched until he disappeared around a corner.

Another sigh brought his attention back into the room. "Ulrich..."

"What? It's not like I made him leave." He frowned. It wasn't his fault William decided to book it upon seeing him, not that he was complaining that he'd done so.

"He knows how you feel about him; how all of you feel about him," Aelita responded, turning back around on the couch. "None of you hide it well."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well maybe that's because we aren't trying to." He folded his arms across his chest and glanced back out the door. "He knows what he did."

"Yes, he's very well aware of that face, Ulrich. You don't need to remind him every second of every interaction with him," she replied evenly. She hit a button on the controller that sent the game back to the main menu. It's cheerful techno electronic music, he noted, felt extremely unfitting. She seemed to agree, as she stood up from the couch and hit the power button on it, sending the room back into that ever-so-uncomfortable silence.

...He wished she'd kept the music on.

He moved towards one of the chair in the room and sat in it, it's back in front of him as he rested his arms on it and leaned forward. "I didn't say anything about that," he protested.

"That's not what your face said." She turned to him, one knee tucked under her. He rolled his eyes. She was looking too much into things; why was it that girls always did that? Yumi did that too and it drove him nuts.

"I just don't get why you're not in the same boat with the rest of us about him." He said.

The moments after William was finally freed and that they'd made sure XANA hadn't left any nasty tricks inside him (or taken something away again like he'd done before with Aelita), one thing was made painfully clear to him: he was not welcome in their group. It wasn't actually stated, but the looks they'd given him, the way they'd all treated him afterwards, including not inviting him to shut down the computer. How could they not after all he'd done to them?

Evidently, Aelita had disagreed. And he still didn't get it.

Ulrich's eyes narrowed at the memories. "He tried to kill us all the time. You especially," he reminded her.

She shrugged. "By that logic, you tried to kill us too."

He sputtered. "Hey, I wasn't in my body-"

"And so did Jeremy, too. And yet I don't see Odd shunning him for it." She continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Well-"

"Oh, and let's not forget that I got caught and possessed by the Scyphozoa countless times. And that I then tried to kill you during every time that happened, and got pretty far in the last attempt with you in particular," she leaned back with a frown. "So that excuse doesn't quite cut it,"

"Those were different!" He argued. "Those weren't as easily preventable as his was! He was being cocky and stupid! You said you warned him not to go off on his own and he didn't listen!"

"As if none of us were the same way when we all started. I can think of several incidents where yours and Odd's egos ended up making things much harder than they had to be in the beginning, and sometimes towards the end too." He voice didn't raise in volume, yet there was an undeniable power to it that still made him feel like she was yelling at him. "Our difference was we had time to figure things out. We threw him into the deep end without being able to teach him how to properly swim first, Ulrich. He had no chance."

His brows furrowed. What she was saying made sense and yet...

"He still should've listened to you and Jeremy. Or run away from the Scyphozoa at least."

She gave a nod in acquiescence. "I'm not disagreeing with you on that. But think back to your first time on Lyoko; can you really say that you really acted much differently?" She never saw Ulrich on his first visit to Lyoko, but she'd heard the story before. "And take my word for it when I say trying to run from that...  _ thing _ , was much harder than it looked."

Ulrich could say nothing in response. He dropped his gaze to the floor.

Aelita hands fell into her lap. "I'm not trying to say that William didn't make a mistake; he did, and it was a big one, and it's one he will never forget about for the rest of his life. But I think he's paid enough for it as it is without you and the other needlessly twisting the knife." He watched as she then stood up from the couch and walked towards the door.

His throat felt dry. "How do you know?" He asked, swallowing in a vain attempt to make it feel normal again.

He hand fell just short of the know. "How do I know what?"

"That he'll never forget it. Or that he's 'paid' for any of it?" Ulrich elaborated. A heavy silence hung between them for what he knew was only seconds, yet felt like and eternity. Why did he have a feeling he wasn't going to like this answer?

She looked back at him, a familiar, haunted look in her eyes that made his heart sink. "Because I still can't forget what happened after every time the Scyphozoa caught me, and it was only for an hour at a time at most.," she pushed open the door. "And I can't imagine how much worse the feeling is after six months under XANA's control."

Ulrich couldn't even think up of a response before she pushed herself out of the room, leaving him alone in the rec room as the door swung shut with a loud bang behind her. He sat there for several minutes, feeling slightly numb.

No... wait... that was guilt he was feeling. About William of all people. He let out a groan and lowered his head onto his arms, still resting on the chair.

Why was it that things could ever be as simple they initially seemed in his life?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The focus of these oneshots will always be about Ulrich and Aelita, but the idea of post series Aelita and William bonding over how much XANA's screwed them over is something that's started to appeal to me in recent years too. Just that line that Aelita has in Fight to the Finish pointing out how she got caught by XANA a lot too really made me wished they explored that more (Or at least had time to explore it more anyway)
> 
> And yes, I hc that those possessed by XANA through the Scyphozoa eventually remember what happened, canon be damned. The angst potential is too good to pass up on.


	6. Chapter 6

Aelita let her head rest against her hand as she stared out the window of the rec room, watching as a light dusting of snow fell across the campus. The rec room was nearly silent, save for a peppy sounding tune playing at a low volume on one of the radios in the room. It was a strange sense of calm compared to how busy things usually were at Kadic. But, that was just the time of year, she supposed.

She sighed. The holidays were upon them once again. And she didn't know how to feel about them.

One one hand, she loved so much about the season. The music, the decorations, the tacky apparel and TV specials, the food, the general goodwill and cheer the time seemed to inspire in people, she loved it all. It was a welcome change of pace from her everyday life.

But... on the other hand, it was so bittersweet for her. Because with the holidays came memories.

Memories of wolves. Of men in black. Of screams.

Memories of cold, stinging tears stuck on her face. Memories of her confusion and fear. Of questions

Memories of a mother that suddenly vanished.

And memories of a father that was no longer alive.

She blinked back a few tears that had tried to form, then rubbed what remained of them away on her sleeve. She wanted to chide herself for thinking about those sorts of things; not now, this wasn't the time or place to do so. But she knew it was impossible to completely keep away such thoughts around this time of year. She'd learned as much last year.

Last year, staying with Jeremy had been a wonderful time, and even better distraction from her fragmented memories trying to haunting her. Jeremy's parents had been so kind and welcoming to her, and she'd had so much fun getting to spend time with Jeremy when he wasn't so focused on work for once that she'd barely had time to give her past any thought. And in the rare moments she did—because as much as she tried to ignore them, the feelings still occasionally slipped through—Jeremy had been right there to help her.

But that was last year. And this was this year. And she was not with Jeremy. She was still at Kadic, where she would remain for the entire break.

It wasn't due to a lack of an invitation on Jeremy's part. She let out a small chuckle as she recalled Jeremy's attempts, her breath fogging the window a bit. Jeremy had been eager to extend an invite to her again for the holidays, practically bouncing on his heels as he told her that his parents were more than happy to act as hosts again. He'd been so eager, in fact, that she nearly accepted the offer once again.

But then she stopped and thought about it. About how she'd already spent last winter with them, and a good portion of the summer as well, and staying again might look a bit suspicious to them. After all, if she spent so much time with them, when would she see her parents? It's not like they knew her history, they had no reason to assume anything. And she didn't want to impose anyway. So she declined, deciding to stay on campus this year.

And so here she was, sitting the nearly abandoned rec room, trying to distract herself from memories of holidays long since passed. And evidently failing quite miserably at it. She let her forehead rest against the cold glass of the window and huffed. The window fogged up again. She started to absently doodle on it with her finger.

Boredom, she was quickly realizing, was going to be her greatest enemy for the next few weeks.

Maybe she should go and find Sissi. She wasn't supposed to leave until a few days from now, and conversations with her never failed to be... enthralling, at the very least. She pulled herself back from the window and—

_ SLAM! _

She startled as the door swung open and crashed against the doorstop. A hand flew to her chest as she turned around to find...

"Ulrich?" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice at the sight of him. Last she'd seen him he had been waiting at the gates for his parents to come get him, and that had almost been an hour ago. Surely they wouldn't have taken that long?

If he'd heard her, he didn't acknowledge it. He had a scowl plastered on his face as he trudged over to the couch, letting his bag fall onto the floor with a thud.

She frowned. This couldn't be good.

He didn't say anything as she moved over from the window to the couch, instead busying himself with pulling off his gloves and shaking off some loose snow on his shoulder. She carefully avoided said snow as she took a seat next to him.

"Ulrich?" she tried again. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but thought better of it after a moment, and just let her hand hang awkwardly just above his shoulder instead. "What are you doing here?"

"Not leaving, apparently," he grumbled, yanking his hat off.

"What?"

He didn't answer at first. He fished his phone out of his pocket and opened up what appeared to be some kind of message he'd received on it. His glare intensified at it. He looked almost ready to hand the phone to her, but hesitated. He let out another grumble and clenched the phone tight in his hand, plastic squeaking as he stared down at the phone again, rereading whatever message it was.

He kept his gaze down as he spoke. "My dad," he spat the words out like they were poisonous, "decided that I need to work on my grades more, and that coming home would be 'too much of a distraction'," He said, using air quotes, then glared at the phone again. He looked about half tempted to throw it, and she was concerned he might actually would.

She let her hand finally reach his shoulder to shake him out of his stupor. "'Too much of a distraction?'" She repeated, seeking clarification.

Ulrich lowered his arm and shrugged. He still refused to make eye contact. "He thinks staying in an 'academic environment' without the distraction of my 'good for nothing friends' might actually help my grades for once. So I'm stuck here." He shook his head and laughed a humorless laugh as he finally turned to look at her. "Joke's on him though, I guess," he said with a nod toward her.

Her expression fell. She gave his shoulder a soft squeeze. "Ulrich, I'm sor-"

"Don't be. I'm not." He interrupted her, pulling his shoulder out of her grip. He glanced down at his phone again, shook his head, and forcefully stuffed it back into his pocket. At her tilted head, he added, "I hate spending the holidays with him. It never goes well; we always end up yelling about one stupid thing or another, or we-" He stopped himself, then shook his head. "Never mind. I don't care. Just wish he'd warned before now. Wouldn't have had to try and pack everything. It's just like him, the jerk..." He gave his bag a light kick with the side of his foot as he grumbled under his breath.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. The wind howled outside as it started to pick up in speed. There was supposed to be more snow on the way, if the weather report was to be believed. She gave another glance out at the window, then back to Ulrich.

She didn't know much about Ulrich's dad, it just wasn't a subject he liked to talk about very much. She faintly recalled him saying something similar about the holidays last year too, about how his father was around that time of year. Ulrich had gotten up and left the car to come help her without much complaint, hadn't he? Come to think of it, the few other experiences she could think of Ulrich's father weren't exactly positive either...

A small part of her wanted to ask more, but she knew better. The fact that Ulrich hadn't immediately gone back to his room to sulk on the matter was a good sign. She didn't want to waste that. If he ever wanted to tell her, she could wait till he was ready.

In the mean time though...

She reached down and pulled Ulrich bag onto her lap. At the sound of her unzipping it Ulrich's head snapped toward her. A look of confusion overcame him.

"What are you doing?" He questioned. He reached to grab the bag, but the hand she held up stopped him. She ignored the stare she could feel he was giving her and continued to search the bag.

It takes a minute to find what she's looking for—his bag was a complete mess to comb through—but eventually she did. Moving aside another one of his shirt revealed what she had been searching for: a small package wrapped in a festive shade of green wrapping paper, topped with a small red bow. The small tag on it read 'To: Ulrich, From: Aelita'.

"Here," she said, and handed it out to him.

He gave her a strange look. "What part of 'we'll open them after break, for real this time' didn't you understand?" He snarked. She fought a smirk at that.

She instead rolled her eyes at him and held it out again. "Just open it, Ulrich. I think we could both use the distraction."

At her words, his brow furrowed. His mouth opened, as it he intended to say something, and she braced herself for the inevitable question, but it never came. Instead, he silently reached for the gift and pulled it out of her hand, muttering a small thanks as he did so. The room was silent, save for the music still playing in the background, and now the sound of tearing paper as Ulrich pulled at the wrapping around the gift.

As soon as he could see what it was he let out a gasp. The latest version of a fighting game series he enjoyed playing. "This game's been almost impossible to find since it came out! How did-?" He cut himself off when he looked over at her. She whistled innocently. He shook his head and grinned. "Thanks, Aelita."

She smiled back. "Of course. Now..." she pulled the game case out of his hand and opened it, pulling the disc out. "are you ready to get your butt whooped at this version too?" she asked.

He was already moving toward the drawer where the controllers were held. After she loaded the game up, he held out a controller to her, a smug smirk on his face. "As if," he declared. "Last time was a fluke and you know it."

"Let's find out, shall we?" She laughed as she took the controller from him. The song on the radio switched to some jazzy cover of another holiday tune she couldn't quite remember the name of. It was soon drowned out by the sounds of the TV as they began their many brawls in the game. The first night of many to come over the break, she was sure.

The holidays were probably always going to be bittersweet for her now. And maybe they were never going to be the most pleasant for Ulrich either. She suspected both of them had plenty of negative memories they could be dwelling around this time of year.

But if this was what they did to keep them from getting too much to handle? Well, she could live with that.

Maybe this years holiday wouldn't be so boring after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the last of the older posts! I really wanted to make a post series holiday one, and I finally did last December (Post series not including Evolution. I personally don't consider it to be canon) I'll get back to this soon, I've definitely got a few ideas in mind, but I'd like to get at least one more Code July prompt out before I take a break from it.
> 
> Feel free to send requests on here or my tumblr in the meantime though! (@yoshistack)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by: ElphabaReyes
> 
> Set: mid season 2

Today just was not his day.

It hadn't been from the moment he'd woken up—at a far earlier time than he would've liked and due to the foul breath of Kiwi as he whined near his face. And whined loudly at that. By the time he'd finally gotten the mutt to settle back down again (No thanks to Odd, he could probably sleep through a whole zoo storming their room) there were only minutes to go before the alarm was set to go off.

From there things had just gotten worse. Spilling hot chocolate everywhere, slipping on the stairs, getting yet another bad test grade back from Ms. Hertz. Really, the world was just determined to not give him a break. He'd been expecting a call from Jeremy about a XANA attack as icing on the cake at any moment, just to really top it all off.

But none of that was even the worst part: it was that no one would shut up.

He wasn't sure what it was, maybe all of Kiwi's whining had irritated ears for too long or something, but he'd felt aware of every single little noise all day. It didn't matter if it was someone clicking their pen, someone whispering in the back of the room, or even just some birds outside, he heard it all.

He knew they were quiet sounds and that they shouldn't have bothered him. Normally they didn't; he ignored them just like any other person would. But today…

Something about them was just too loud. They'd grated on his nerves all day, pulling at his attention and distracting him from the lessons he already knew he was behind on. He tried to fight it, he tried to force himself to pay attention, but all that did was leave him feeling exhausted.

By the end of classes, he wanted nothing more than to slap his hands over his ears and enjoy some peace and quiet for once. Just for five minutes, that was all he wanted. But none of his usual spots seemed to work: Odd was too focused on playing some old game he'd found at full volume, and the sound of Jeremy's keyboard was only going to drive him more insane.

In a last ditch effort, he'd decided to try and go to the library, knowing it was the one spot where being quiet was expected. At first, it seemed to work, but then…

"Oh, Ulrich!"

Sissi. Of course she'd show up.

"Why, I've been looking everywhere for you!" she'd said in a whisper. She slid into the seat next to him—of course picking a more secluded section would backfire—and leaned close. "I wouldn't have thought I'd find you here though. The gym, or something I'd get but… oh well. Now that I have you, I wanted to ask you…"

He'd grit his teeth and clenched a fist at his side as she continued to talk. He found her voice annoying on a good day as it was. On a day like today?

Borderline unbearable.

She seemed completely oblivious to his rising anger, however, and was content to keep whispering away about whatever it was she wanted to say. He didn't really know, probably about something stupid about some movie or how much better she (supposedly) was than Yumi or something. He didn't really care.

He just wanted her to go away.

"...Oh, and another thing! Can you believe that science test? Why should we have to remember that junk anyway? I think…"

He let out a low grunt and shut his eyes. She was still talking. Why was she still talking? Couldn't she take a hint? Oh, who was he kidding, this was Sissi he was talking about. She understood subtly about as well as Kiwi knew how to roll over.

He could feel his patience wearing thin and his temper begin to flare. He shouldn't cause a scene, he got into enough trouble as it was thanks to XANA. He shouldn't add more fuel to that fire. He knew that, but he was just so sick of her!

"Sissi."

His head snapped up. He hadn't said that. That had been someone new. He looked over in the direction it had come from, just behind Sissi.

Aelita.

Sissi whirled around to look and seemed surprised as well. "Oh, it's you," she said, tone flat. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yes, but," she shifted, adjusting the position of some books she was holding to her chest. "I just thought you should know that your father is looking for you.

"I'm sure it wasn't that important," Sissi waved it off, sending Aelita a dirty look.

Aelita, for her part, shrugged. "Well, it sounded important to me. Something about a test grade, I think?"

Sissi's face paled. "Oh, that kind of thing. I uh…" she quickly stood up from her seat. "D-don't you go anywhere, Ulrich! I'll be right back!"

Aelita looked back at her as she rushed by her. "He was at the science building last I saw," she told her, and then she was out the door. A moment later, she looked back at Ulrich with a smile.

Ah, finally… Relief. He let his tensed muscles start to relax. He leaned back in his chair, letting his shoulders drop. He looked back again when he felt the chair beside him move again, and found Aelita had taken the spot with a worried look on her face.

"Are… you ok?" she asked.

"I…" he sighed and rubbed at one of his temples. "It's just been a long day. ." He let out a wince when he heard some barely hushed cheers after someone managed to throw a wadded up paper in a trashcan nearby. "And no one seems to understand what the words 'peace and quiet; mean anymore…" He let his head fall against the table with a groan.

Aelita let out a hum, and out of the corner of his eye he could see her tap her finger to her chin. "Hm… well, if you're looking for somewhere quiet, you could come to my room for a bit," she offered.

He lifted his head and blinked. "Really?" Then, he made a face. "I don't know…" The last thing he'd want to do was snap at her...

"I don't have much going on, if that's what you're worried about, and it's usually pretty quiet there at this time of day," She was already standing back up as she spoke. "And besides, she's less likely to look for you there later, don't you think?"

Well, when she put it that way…

"Yeah, you're probably right," he admitted, and stood up to follow her out of the library. The noises became much more muffled as the doors into the hallway closed behind them. It was much more deserted out here, and already he felt like a weight had been lifted from him.

Finally…

As they walked, he gave a grateful look toward Aelita. Thank goodness that she'd been looking for Sissi…

Although, the more he thought about that, the more confused he was.

"Hey," he asked, "Why did Mr. Delmas ask you to find Sissi anyway? I would've thought that he or even Jim would've done that kind of thing."

"Oh, he didn't," she replied with a casual shrug.

He stopped in his tracks. "Wait… so you…?!"

She paused in front of the door, readjusting her hold on the books again. "Yes, I lied," she confirmed. "You had that look on your face that you usually get before Yumi warns you not to do something stupid on Lyoko, so I thought maybe you needed help, so I…" She trailed off at the sight of him gaping at her.

For a moment, he didn't answer. He was just so surprised. When had she gotten so good at lying? She'd only been here for a few months. Sure, lying came second nature to the rest of them by now, but to her? He wouldn't have expected that.

"Should I… not have done that?" Aelita's voice was quiet as she suddenly spoke again, pulling him out of his thoughts. She shuffled on her feet and stared down at the ground when he didn't immediately respond.

Ah, there was the uncertain look he was used to on her—the one she'd get when she wasn't sure about if she was doing 'Earth things' correctly. Maybe it wasn't as much second nature for her then…

But she was still scarily good at it.

"It's fine, Aelita," he assured her. "I just… you sure do learn fast, that's all." He laughed to himself, much to her confusion. She tilted her head and let out a befuddled noise, but he just shook his head and opened the door for her. "Don't worry about it. C'mon,"

She seemed fine with letting it go, and they made their way toward the dorm building together in peace. The whole time though, he couldn't help but wonder.

Maybe those jokes Jeremy liked making about the group corrupting her innocence had some truth to them after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't quite think of a scenario in which Aelita would have to defend Ulrich from Sissi in quite the same way he'd done for her, but there's more than one way to defend somebody after all.
> 
> ...I do feel bad for writing two chapters now where Sissi's the bad guy though. I do like her, I swear! At least I got to use the idea that the show kind of implies about Aelita being a good liar by virtue of most people not suspecting she'd have any reason to lie.
> 
> I have some more ideas for this fic in the works, but you're free to request stuff for it as well if you'd like.


	8. Chapter 8

He really envied her some days, especially when it came to her relationship with her father.

He knew that was ridiculous. She and her father had a long and complicated history that he still couldn't fully wrap his head around, not to mention what happened to him in the final stand against XANA. He had no reason to be jealous of that mess.

And yet… there was just something about the way she spoke about him.

It was something in her voice whenever she'd tell stories about her father. Something about her tone, it…

It always sounded so fond.

The type of memory didn't matter—it could've been about some book he'd read to her as a kid or something that, in hindsight, made her sad to think about—that tone was always there. From the way she spoke of him, it was clear the man had done his best to be there for her.

A far cry from his own dad.

Hopper had been willing to go to the end of the Earth if it meant keeping his daughter safe; the supercomputer was physical proof of that fact.

His father wouldn't even put a fraction of that effort in if his son's life was in danger, he was sure of it. Maybe if it was to save his own skin, but definitely not for him.

He couldn't even remember the last time they'd spoken to each other, and they certainly would be speaking so nicely to one another whenever it next happened. Harsh, bitter tones were more likely.

So to hear her speak so kindly toward her own...

Yeah. It made him jealous.

It was unreasonable to feel that way, he knew. It was stupid, and it definitely wasn't fair to her. She'd been through enough in her life as it was.

And so, she would never know.

* * *

She really envied him some days, especially when it came to his relationship with his father.

She knew that was ridiculous. She didn't know much about his dad, only what little scraps of information the others shared, but she knew enough that he and Ulrich didn't get along well. She had no reason to be jealous.

And yet… there was something about the way he spoke about him.

Her didn't speak about him often, but when he did, there was an unmistakable anger that shook through his voice. He didn't try and hide it, it was plain for all of them to see.

And there was something refreshing about that. Because it was just so… uncomplicated.

A far cry from her own father.

She'd loved him dearly, and her grief over his sacrifice would, she suspected, hang over her for a very long time. But…

What she'd said about him to Jeremy just before recovering her memory, calling him a "totally crazy, second rate magician"...

It wasn't inaccurate.

Her memories were still somewhat fuzzy and vague, but she remembered bits and pieces of her life from before. And while many of her memories were of a happy life, they were far from normal. Among all the happy memories of piano music and fairy tales, there were other things too.

A panicked look on her father's face when she'd ask to go ride her bike for a bit. Long and sometimes nonsensical sounding rambling about keeping her safe. Wistful looks towards a portrait of her mother. The strange hole that suddenly appeared in Mr. Puck before he told her to go hide him.

The feelings such memories gave her were… complicated. She certainly loved her father, but some of the things he did were nothing short of mad.

Ulrich's relationship, meanwhile, was much more straightforward. They didn't get along. They argued, if they bothered talking at all. That was all there was to it.

It was so simple.

Her feelings were… a lot more complex.

So, to hear him be able to rant and able to describe his feelings so succinctly...

Yeah. It made her jealous.

It was unreasonable to feel that way, she knew. It was stupid, and it definitely wasn't fair to him. Her own hang ups about the past were no reason to envy something like that.

And so, he would never know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever get one of those idea that just won't leave you alone? Yeah, that was this; just something based on the idea of Hopper not quite being... completely stable, and it snowballed into whatever this was. Call it a writing experiment I guess?
> 
> I'l probably try doing something better with that idea later, but for now take this I guess. Admittedly, I don't quite think this completely belongs in this fic given what the theme is, but I also don't necessarily wanna put it into it's own thing. So here it is.
> 
> And to those that have left requests: don't worry! I see them!

**Author's Note:**

> Chapters 1-6 were written between June 2017 and December 2019. Some were requested by users on FF.net, but you're free to request something too (I'm not promising I'll do it though)
> 
> Please keep the request focused on those two platonically though. That's what this is about.  
> (Also I'm on tumblr @yoshistack. Feel free to pop in and say hi... or talk about CL. I'm always game for that)


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